For defiling his 8-year-old daughter, an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday sentenced a 42-year-old man, Suleimon Usman, to life imprisonment.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports Usman was charged with a two-count charge bordering on defilement, which he had pleaded not guilty to.
In his ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Rahmon Oshodi, who, discharged and acquitted the defendant on the second charge, said the prosecution failed to prove the second charge against the defendant as the second victim did not testify in the trial.
The judge ruled: “The testimony of the first survivor corroborates the evidence of the medical doctor. The survivor said that she felt pain in her bombom when her father put his finger in her virgina and also inserted his penis in her anus.
“I have considered the ingredients of the offences; the confessional statement, circumstantial evidence and the eyewitness account.
“I do not believe that the first survivor was tutored. I reiterate that her evidence is credible. Regardless, I have already received an eyewitness account, where the survivor said ‘my daddy used to carry me every night from our room and put me in parlour and put his penis in my bombom.”
The judge further held that the prosecution provided evidence of a medical doctor who examined the survivor.
“The medical report showed redness in the virginal lips, the anus was loosen and getting healed and there was penetration in the survivor anus.
“I am convinced that the medical doctor’s evidence corroborates the survivor’s.
“The mother said the crime scene is their family parlour. I do not consider the defendant’s testimony as credible.
“I find the defendant guilty of count one and he is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment,” Oshodi said.
During trial, the state counsel, Ms Inumidun Solarin, presented four witnesses: first survivor, the eight-year-old girl, an Investigative Police Officer (IPO), mother of the survivor and the medical doctor from Mirabel Center, while the defence called three witnesses.
The prosecutor said the convict committed the offence which is contrary to section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015, at No. 2 Bale St., Onisiwo in Apapa, Lagos.
Source: NAN
